In Retrospect from Abraham to the Exodus
Generation

In
retrospect, it is no wonder that Abraham separatedfrom Terah, Isaac separatedfrom Ishmael, Jacob separatedfrom Esau, and the Exodus Generation separatedfrom
Egypt. The Church was learning from and avoiding the sin and apostasy of their
pastime, from Genesis to Abraham. The individuals from whom The Church existed
in separation from in each generation - from Abraham to the Exodus Generation -
were once-born men or twice-born backsliders. The question was posed at the
beginning of the Chapter, were ALL the individuals who were considered to be a
part of The Church regenerated or saved? My reader, think of it! If ALL of the
individuals in The Church were NOT saved, then why were the once-born men or
twice-born backsliders expelled from their midst, what harm would they do? The
essence of what a Church was from its beginning does reveal that ALL
individuals were saved. The necessity of expelling unsaved individuals was
warranted because for one sinner to be mixedwithin the community of people allowed a corrupting
influence to spread throughout the holy people who were, all of them, saved
individuals, otherwise they would not have worried themselves at the happenchance
of one unclean individual.

God did,
as previously noted, spiritually save the Israelites, and by that I mean
individually. God did savingly “call” Israel that He might indwell
each personal Israelite individual, but there was more! God also
savingly “called” Israel that He might have corporate and nationwidespiritualunion with them. This means that the personal indwelling
of God within each regenerated person was not the fullest expression of
mankind’s reconciliation to God. It was one thing for God to say, “I will dwell
in them” (2 Cor. 6:16), and it was another thing to say, “I will walk among
you” (Lev. 26:11-12) or “there I am in the midst of them” (Matt.
18:20, Num. 5:2-3, Deut. 23:14). Personal union with God is distinct
from corporate union. There is a difference between God dwelling “in us”
rather than Him dwelling “among us”, for God to “indwell you” rather than Him “walking
among you”. For example, God had already indwelt David as an individual
(meaning that God was always with him personally and individually), but at many
points in time David lamented to God, saying, “Thou…didst not go out with
[Israelite] armies” (Ps. 60:10)! God was with David individually but absent
from Israel corporately and collectively. God was inside of David, to wit, he was
experiencing salvation individually, but He was withdrawn from Israel, to wit,
the collected people did not experience salvation corporately. We too, like
David, must make this very important delineation in its New Testament sense!
Only then can we understand salvation in full volume.

After
the Passover, the Exodus out of Egyptian slavery, and the Red Sea Baptism, each
individual Israelite who was of age was indwelt by the regenerating
Spirit of God, thus at Mount Sinai God descended upon and in the
midst of Israel by His special and immediatepresence,
and this resulted in a collective and corporateunion with
God --- a portrait of what The Church is supposed to be at all times! We must
understand this momentous and shocking “Sinai Meeting” that Israel had with
God, and more specifically, the significance of the descent of God’s immediatepresence into the midst of Israel, then we will be enabled to understand
this corporate and collective purpose of God that He, namely,
seeks not merely a person but “a people”, not a single man
in near relationship to Himself but an entire nation, to be their Ruler,
King, and Law-Maker – which means, in other words, for Him to be “their God”.
I say again, God was not calling “a person” but “a people”, thus He desires to
collectively and simultaneously, with spiritual unity, be in all, through all,
and among all, and that we, in Him, would be one with each other. This expanded
vision is salvation in full volume! This is what God Almighty descended from
heaven-to-earth for to establish, as He said: “And I will walk among
you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Lev. 26:11-12).

This
single characteristic – God’s indwelling & immediate presence
in their midst – set Israel apart
from every other “people” on the earth. As we continue, it is important that we
see how difficult it is to obtain this most blessed experience of salvation in
full volume. In this consideration, my reader, take careful notice of three
points: (1st) God is HOLY and DREADFUL (It was through an
awful and deadly descent that God came amongst His people, and they, scarcely
surviving it, learned the unfathomable otherworldliness of God – how that He is
sinless and sin-hating – and where His immediate presence is there was,
by necessity, immediate judgments), (2nd) and God, as
a Ruler, King, and “their GOD”, decreed a Law whereby He might establish,
govern, maintain, and continue the holyseparateness of His people throughout every
generation (and this, in turn, secures Israel’s salvific acceptance when
otherwise, shockingly, their sinfulness would merit for themselves a damning,
irrevocable, castaway-rejection). My reader, look upon “The Sinai Experience”
and consider that, where God is, this place is a
separated place, a holy place,
and ALL those that were with Him must therefore be, with continuance, “called
out” from unholiness into separation! Once this is understood first and
foremost, then the doctrines of The Church come alive!

The Sinai Experience: The Descent of God’s
Immediate Presence

I must
say, firstly, that God dwelt in the midst of Israel before “The Sinai
Experience” (“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a
people of strange language; Judah was His Sanctuary, and Israel His Dominion.”-Ps.114:1-2),
but it was not vocalized in such a clear and doctrinal way so that every
generation thenceforth might comprehend the magnitude of such an event. God was
in their midst from Egypt unto Mount Sinai because God fetched them from Egypt
and brought them unto Sinai. The Lord said, “I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that Land
unto a good Land and large…” (Ex. 3:8). God came down to accomplish their
salvation and make them The Church, the Family of God via the powers of
regeneration, a reconciliation between God and man.

The Call of Salvation: “brought
you unto Myself” – Ex. 19:4-6

The Call
of salvation to Israel was for a single Divine objective, “I will take you to
me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know
that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex. 6:7). To be taken by God as “a people”, for Him
to be “their God”, this was a very fearful and difficult thing. It was not easy
for a sinful people to survive with so Holy of a God that hath come nigh! When
the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai and “camped before the Mount” (Ex.
19:2), God said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare
you on eagles’ wings, and brought
you unto Myself. Now
therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all
the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of priests, and an holy
Nation” (Ex. 19:4-6).

Consider
it, my reader. When God made the first man, Adam, He walkedamong
and dweltwith him in the Garden of Eden. There was a sinless
friendship, communion One with another in unfathomable familiarity and heavenly
tenderness, so much so that Adam was able to recognize the sound of the Lord
walking in the garden (Gen. 3:8). God was – Adam’s God! – but what should we
expect if God becomes “Israel’s God”? By what apparent characteristics would
Israel change when they become “the people” whom God – Adam’s God! – has chosen
for Himself? Would He, yet again, walk among mankind? God saved Israel to be
“Israel’s God”, and this was for the purpose, God said, “that I MAY DWELL
AMONG THEM: I am the LORD their God” (Ex. 29:46)… thus there remains
therefore a dreadful and fearful dilemma. Adam dwelt in friendship with God’s presence
while in sinless innocence, but how can Israel, a fallen brood of
depravity, at once, suddenly, begin a friendship with God Almighty? My reader,
the day of Israel’s ceremonial commitment to God approached, the day in which
they would become “a people” collectively given to God – “God’s people” – Oh!
Consider that ancient scene at Sinai again! How this fallen nation of Adamic
woe did arise from the depths of slavery to find: they were called to an
assembly in which God did attend! Suddenly, and shockingly, Israel found
themselves in the hands of a Living God, terrified!

While Mount
Sinai’s fires did whelm in upward-rage, every Israelite face watched on terror-stricken
and amazed!

While
heavenly trumpets sounded and ere-long were blasting, millions of saints were
seen before God collapsing!

Oh
remember the scene, my reader! Scarcely did Israel live through it! They cried,
“Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this
great Fire any more, that I die not” (Deut. 18:16)! And the Lord said, “They
have well spoken that which they have spoken” (Deut. 18:17). “And so terrible
was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake” (Heb. 12:21)! Dear
reader, this was the nativity of Israelite salvation as it would soon exist in
full volume… do you think God was trying to make a point?

“How Dreadful is this Place!” – Gen. 28:17

God is here.
God is holy.

Why was Israel so afraid? What
point was God trying to make? My reader, why was Jacob so afraid? “How dreadful
is this place”, Jacob exclaimed! …but why? Jacob found Himself in the presence
of God in the House of God! How did Jacob know he was in the House of God?
Jacob saw holy angels ascending and descending in that place! The place was
“dreadful” because, Jacob said, “the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not”
(Gen. 28:16), angels ascending and descending in attendance to God Almighty! If
by these marks Jacob realized he was in the House of God, The Church,
what can be said of “the Sinai Experience” of the Exodus Generation?

A
Law for a Loved People who Sat at God’s Feet to Receive His Words… “The
LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from
Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints: from His right hand went
a fiery Law for them. Yea, He loved the people; all His saints are in Thy hand:
and they sat down at Thy feet; every one shall receive of Thy words.” –
Deuteronomy 33:2

The
Old Testament Church:A
Congregation Brought to Sinai in and by the Presence of GOD, there to Stand
Before Thousands of Angels in Chariots of Fire, there to Receive Gifts as God’s
Captivity and God’s Dwelling Place, The Church… “O God, when thou
wentest forth before Thy people, when thou didst march through the
wilderness; Selah: The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence
of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of
Israel…Thy congregationhath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word: great was the company of
those that published it…The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as
the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God
desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever. The chariots of God are twenty
thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them,
as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast
ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for
men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might
dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation. Selah.” – Psalm 68:7-19

The
New Testament Church: An
Assembly or Church of God which is One Body and One Spirit, a Spirit which is
In & Through them ALL via God’s Captivity which is Gathered with an
Innumerable Company of Angels…“There isone
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of
your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God
and Father of ALL, who is above ALL, and through
ALL, and in you ALL. But
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up
on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now
that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” – Ephesians 4:4-12, “And so
terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye
are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the City of the living God, the Heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels, To the general assembly
and Churchof the firstborn…” – Hebrews 12:21-23

“Dwell
Among Them”: A congregated people wherein God is in all, through all, and
among them all.

Have you ever wondered why God
said of the Old Testament saints that He was not only among them but in them?
He said very specifically, “I will dwell in them and walk in them”
(2 Cor. 6:16). This is quoted from the Law in 2 Corinthians 6:16 as an Old
Testament reality, a reality which God spoke of in manifold ways and phrases
all throughout the scriptures, one of them being, “Thou hast ascended on high,
Thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the
rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them” (Ps. 68:18,
Eph. 4:8). What does it mean for God to dwell among the Israelites by means of
Divine captivity and endowed gifting? Paul is very clear in portraying the same
reality as it existed in the New Testament Church, affirming, “One God and
Father of ALL, who is above ALL, and through ALL, and in you ALL” (Eph. 4:6),
“that he might fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). These affirmations directly
parallel the aforementioned thesis of the Old Testament Church, “I will dwell
IN THEM, and walk IN THEM; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people” (2 Cor. 6:16). Evidently, this is what was happening at Sinai as
depicted in Psalm 68!

What is The Church, but the
place and people among whom and in whom God walks (2 Cor. 6:16)? God promised
the express purpose of His love, “I will walk among you” (Lev. 26:11-12), just
as He walked with Enoch, Noah, and Abraham (Gen. 5:22, 24, 6:9, 17:1-2). Do you
remember how the scripture stated, “Enoch with God” (Gen. 5:22)? Do you
remember how the scripture stated, “Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9)? Do you
remember how God said to Abraham, “Walk before Me” (Gen. 17:1-2)? The Church at
Sinai was exactly like The Church at Abraham’s camp, but God provided a fuller
volume of explanation to describe what happened in the Exodus Generation. The
Tabernacle or Temple (“the place of the soles of My feet”-Ezek.43:7) was
a material housing which God ordained for Himself to abide in while He walked
among His people in this fashion, just as He said to Abraham, “walk before Me”
(Gen. 17:1-2). Because God walked in and among Abraham, my reader, God
appeared! Do you remember the event when God appeared unto Abraham!?

“And the
LORD appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre…and he lifted up his
eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran
to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said,
My Lord, if now I have found favour in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee,
from Thy servant…” - Gen. 18:1-3; see the parallel in Ex. 33:12-17

God Almighty appeared, communed
with, and dwelt among the tent of Abraham in the presence of two angels, my
reader! Yes! And this is because Abraham’s camp was the House of God, The
Church! This experience of Abraham was a physical manifestation of what was
spiritually happening at all times, a foreshadow of The Church as it would be
depicted in the days of Jacob (who saw holy angels ascending and
descending in the House of God – Genesis 28, who wrestled with God in the midst
of holy angels during an engagement of intercession – Genesis 32:1-2, 24-30),
as it would be depicted in the days of theExodus Generation (who
assembled at the foot of Sinai before God among thousands of holy angels –
Psalm 68:17), as it would be depicted in the days of David (who saw a
holy angel with a sword drawn during an engagement of intercession wherein the
founding of the House of God was established at the threshing floor of Araunah
the Jebusite – 2 Samuel 24:15-18, 2 Chron. 3:1, Gen. 22:14), as it would be
depicted in the days Elijah (who was taken up by holy angels in chariots
of fire because the angels of the Lord encamped around The Church – 2 Kings
2:12, Ps. 34:7), as it would be depicted in the days of Elisha (around
whom there encamped an army of holy angels – 2 Kings 6:17), as it would be
depicted in the days of Isaiah (who saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne
with holy seraphims flying around Him – Isaiah 6:1-3), as it would be depicted
in the days of Ezekiel (who also saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne with
holy seraphims flying around Him – Ezekiel 1), as it would be depicted in the
days of Jesus Christ (upon whom it was beheld by the 1st
century Church the very heavens opened with “the angels of God ascending and
descending” – John 1:51), as it would be depicted in the days of the 1st
centuryChurch by the apostle John (who saw the resurrected
and ascended Lord Jesus with seven stars in His right hand as He was walking in
the midst of The Churches, and the seven stars were the seven angels of the
seven Churches – Rev. 1:12-13, 16, 20, 2:1), as it would be affirmed by scripture
(that holy angels are God-sent ministers to The Church, the heirs of salvation
– Hebrews 1:14). Do you see the staggering commonality, my reader? Now do you
know why Jacob concluded that he was in the House of God?

At the first Church which
existed in the very first generation, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel walked with God
and dwelt underneath the light which shone from His Face, that is until Cain
became a castaway (see Gen. 4:13-14). Abraham did what God commanded when the
Lord said, “walk before Me” (Gen. 17:1-2), and in so doing, by necessity,
Ishmael became a castaway. This is the God who, Jacob said, “was with me in the
way which I went” (i.e. the God Jacob walked with; see Gen. 35:3), the God that
appeared unto him at Bethel (“I am the God of Bethel”-Gen.31:13, 35:1)
after that Esau became a castaway. Thenceforth The Church existed, but until
the Exodus Generation The Church was not depicted in the full volume of
salvation with all its implications explained; The Church was a living entity
before it was a doctrinal entity.

Synonyms

“walked with God” – Gen. 5:22, 24, 6:9

“walk before Me” – Gen. 17:1-2

“walk among you” - Lev. 26:12

“the place of the soles of My feet”-Ezek.43:7

“In the midst whereof I dwell” – Numbers 5:3

“walketh in the midst” – Deuteronomy 23:14

“In the midst” – Matthew 18:20

“walketh in the midst” - Rev. 2:1

Interpretations

“Dwell
among them” – Psalm 68:18

“One
God and Father of ALL, who is above ALL, and through ALL, and in you ALL” –
Ephesians 4:6

“I
will dwell IN THEM, and walk IN THEM; and I will be their God, and they shall
be My people” - 2 Cor. 6:16

Legal Identity

“And I
will establish My Covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee.” – Genesis 17:7

“And I
will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.
And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out
of the Land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their
God.” - Ex. 29:45-46

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the Land of
Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
– Lev. 11:45

“and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people” – 2 Cor. 6:16

A Law to Regulate the People, Place, &
Environment among which GOD Dwells

Jacob was “afraid” and full of
dread at Bethel, which means “the House of God”, a fear which led him into
obedience to God thenceforth. In the Exodus Generation, The Church, saintly men
were taught what Jacob feared (otherwise known as, “the fear of his father
Isaac”-Gen. 31:53), a fear we must seek after and choose (Prov. 1:29, 2:1-5) in
remembrance of what God made the Exodus Generation to feel – an event which,
Moses said, “God is come…that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin
not” (Ex. 20:20). What was this fear for, my reader? At the beginning of The
Church, this fear taught them that God is holy.

For an
unholy people to engage the Holy, they must be prepared.

Before God did ever meet with
Israel they had to be sanctified. “And
the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctifythem to day and to morrow, and let them wash
their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the
LORD will come down in the sight of the people upon Mount Sinai.” Oh the
gravity that “Moses brought forth the people out of the camp TO MEET WITH
GOD; and they stood at the nether part of the Mount” (Amos 4:12). My
reader, we should wonder at the circumstances of this meeting wherein Moses,
Aaron, the priests, and the people (in Exodus 19:20-24) did prepare themselves
after being warned of the inherit danger of this engagement!

Three days was the appointed
time of sanctificationand cleansingfor the people to be made “ready” (Ex. 19:11, 15).
Thrice did God warn with The Death Penalty when peradventure, the unholy
broke through the boundaries to gaze upon the
Holy! Those who came too near came to die, God said. The Lord, who was
“A Consuming Fire” would “break forth upon them” for such a violation. As the
Almighty lit Sinai a-blaze with the fire of His presence “and the smoke thereof
ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly” (Ex.
19:18), men would burn if they came too close. “The whole Mount quaked greatly”
at the Lord’s terrifying descent, and, afar off, men quaked at a distance as
they were scarcely able to look-on. The Holy Mountain and holy men melted for
fear… for what? Man met-with-God
as an assembly, as a collected people perfected in holiness, as The Church! Forthwith,
the whole earth was commanded to stagger and tremble at the news, my reader! The
voice of Divine unction declares the amazement of this unthinkable meeting of
man-with-God, saying, “Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the
presence of the God of Jacob” (Psalm 114:7)!

“And the
LORD said unto Moses, go down, charge the people, lest they break through
unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which
come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break
forth upon them. And Moses said unto the LORD, the people cannot come up to
the Mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, set bounds about the
Mount, and sanctify it. And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down,
and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests
and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon
them” (Ex. 19:20-24).

The Lord came down in “A
Consuming Fire” (Heb. 12:29), but why? He is, in essence, Holy-Destructive. Not
to Sinai only, but “the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up” (2
Pet. 3:10)! God descended in Uncontainable Destructive Fury because He is
unable to abide silent, friendly, and casual beside the immediate presence of
sin or sinners. All that is living gasps to behold “the Living God”; whether
visible or invisible, material or immaterial, animate or inanimate. All that is
living falls dead before His Life!
He is the One before whom “the devils believe and tremble” (James 2:19), and
should not saints do the same? They should. They must! The saints, like the
devils, are taught to prepare to meet with God as the one “with Whom we have to
do” (Heb. 4:13)! The devils will MEET with God later, a time that will be the
hour of their torments, but saints are called to MEET with God now in congregational
form via The Church! Therefore as the devils cry, “What have we to do with
Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God”, should not the saints also cry, “Jesus, Thou Son
of God, we have to do with Thee because Thou hast made
us holyfor Thyself!”

You see, my reader, the saints
were taught to agree with this “terrifying thing” – to be a people who is especially
and immediately in the presence of the Living God! Therefore they also
learned by experience that what happened to Sinai at the first will happen to
them in this life and the next, if they wander from holy living while in
the presence of a Holy God. What do I mean? My reader, consider the
language of Divine woe which was foretold by the prophet Micah. Micah said,
“For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and
tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten
under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the
waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob
is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel” (Mic. 1:3-5). Does
this prophetic utterance sound familiar to “the Sinai Experience”? It is! Only
this latter time is for the destruction of His people who were then found in
transgression and sin. You see, to be anywhere near God and there be some
trespass or sin, He does and will, and thrice warns at the beginning, He will
“break forth upon them” (Ex. 19:24). “Them”, God said, refers to The Church.
Those people were Church members in holy engagement to meet with God! Great
privileges exist with great consequences, yes, and this first-meeting of Israel
and God was symbolic of future regulations. The Church existed to meet with
God… but to do so and live required Divinely authored regulations.

“And thou
shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to
yourselves, that ye go not up into the Mount, or touch the border
of it: whosoever toucheth the Mount shall be surely put to death: There
shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through;
whether it be beast or man, it shall not live:
when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the Mount” (Ex.
19:12-13).

Such commandments symbolize the
purpose of the Mosaic Law which would be hereafter expounded to Moses in full
volume. You see, there were lesser and more holy places, as also, there were
lesser and more holy things which the Israelites learned to be careful
of, things which the Law would later on specify. The amazing thing is that God
instituted a Law whereby He might come down and abide with Israel thenceforth
and forever, and this first-meeting was just the beginning! The beginning of
The Church: the company of “called out ones” who dwelt in the midst of God
Almighty!

“What
nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them?” – Deut. 4:7

The holiness of God was so
dreadfully dangerous at the inception of the Covenant that, shockingly, God
desired for His people to stand “afar off” from the LORD to behold “the
thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the Mountain
smoking”, that the Lord would be so sanctified in their eyes to the end, that, Moses
said, “His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not” (Ex. 19:20).
If Israel did but “learn to fear” God (Deut. 4:10), they would have survived. A
man who walked among God’s Holy presence must learn to live in friendship with
the LORD (via personal holiness). As a point of significance let it be known to
you, my reader… Israel’s fear of God waned. God lamented over their eventual
fearlessness which led to their damnation because they forgot the gripping
awfulness of this very first experience, when “the LORD spake” to them “in the
Mount out of the midst of the fire of the cloud, and of the thick darkness,
with a great voice” (Deut. 5:22). Because fearlessness cooled the fervency of
their attentiveness to God, they sinned. Sin brought forth destruction which
God did beforehand lament when He said, “O that there were such an heart in
them, THAT THEY WOULD FEAR ME, and keep all My commandments always, that it
might be well with them, and with their children for ever” (Deut. 5:29)! “The
Sinai experience” was institutional of saving fear among the “called-out
community”, The Church. The Israelites were called to know with awful
certainty: “God is here”, “God is among us”, and “God is to be feared”.

Despite Israel’s eventual
departure from God, the Covenant was made… scarcely though. After the Covenant’s
great initiation day when all of Israel was assembled before Sinai as it was
caught-up in flames, Moses went up into the Mount with God for forty days
neither eating nor drinking. This departure of Moses into the Mount of God is
very specifically noted in scripture because from Exodus 24:15-18 to Exodus
32:15, Moses abode with God upon the Mountain. What was Moses doing? Moses was
receiving all the instructions and preparations that needed to be made for God
to fulfill the purpose of Israel’s salvation, God said, “that I may dwell among
them” (Ex. 29:46; see Exodus Chapters 24 to 32). How was God going to dwell
among them? God was giving to Moses the dimensions and instructions concerning
the Tabernacle, a material abode of God’s immediate presence. What a staggering
proposition! For God to dwell among Israel they had to becomeholy and liveholy. This is why Israel was made to encircle
before Sinai with an attention to holinessin dreadful carefulness, all eyes turning toward the Mountain
of God. Shockingly, after this, God instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle for this
God to dwell in, the God of Sinai! A Tabernacle, yes, and multitudes of
precautionary regulations whereby Israel might survive the enterprise. God came
down to perpetually “dwell among the children of Israel” in peculiar
nearness and immediatepresence, and this is His stated claim
which He asserted as His own purpose for redeeming them. For God to dwell among
Israel it was understood that, He “will be their God” (Ex. 29:45).
Man-with-God, in friendship, fellowship, and communion. Furthermore, God chose
“the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation” as the place where, He
said to Moses,

“I will
meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of
Israel, and the Tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory. And I will
sanctify the Tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify
also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office. And I
will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they
shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the
Land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.” -
Ex. 29:42-46

The entire significance of
staying clean before God was because of the presence of God in their
midst. God was offended by the presence of sin, thus it must be cleansed from
before the immediate attention of His holy eyes. The book of Leviticus would
not exist if God did not decide to dwell in the midst of the people. My
reader, think of it! The anger of the Lord burns with an otherworldly offence against
sin – violent fury against the violence of sin! – therefore “the fire shall
ever be burning upon the altar; it shall NEVER GO OUT” (Lev. 6:12-13)! This, my
reader, is an emblem of the everlasting hatred of God against sin and
sinners. For the hatred of God to be temporarily satisfied (while the eternally
sufficient Lamb of God was yet to descend and become flesh for a triumphant,
once-for-all atonement) these Old Testament bodies of sinners, which
were actual creatures, were then identified as Lawful sin-bearers (the animals
for the sins of the humans), and thus they were ever-sacrificed and ever-burned!
“The fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and
the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt-offering in
order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings. The
fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out” (Lev.
6:12-13). Oh my reader, consider it! All of mankind will one day appear before
the Lord, the Lord God who dwelt in this ancient Tabernacle, and this God – an
All-Holy GOD – will burn sin with or without removing it from men! Let us
therefore take heed, my reader! If God provides a means to remove sin from
sin-saturated humanity, so that, staggeringly, the guilty will suddenly appear
innocent before His Divine reckoning, let us fly into the safety which God has
provided for the guilty! According to God’s provision, nevertheless, there is
one conclusion. Before God’s very own eyes, those creatures that bear the
iniquity (whether animals or humans) – the sinners – must have their bodies
slain, their blood shed, and finally, the blood-drained bodies must be burned-up
and consumed in His presence, according to the Law written in Leviticus (for
paralleling significance see 2 Thess. 1:9, Rev. 14:10-11, Job 18:15, Rom. 9:22,
Lk. 19:27). This is to signify to mankind the unrestrained anger of God against
sin: behold, all that would or could remain of the sinner must be
brought forth without the camp (into cursed place), and there to be devoured by
the fires of annihilation (whether in this life or the next, see Heb. 13:11,
Lev. 8:17, Rev. 14:20, 20:9-15, 21:8, 27, 22:15; i.e. the Lake of Fire). My
reader, God IS, therefore sin IS NOT. God is I AM, therefore sin is forced to
live out the title, “I am not”. Either the sinner or the sin-bearing sacrifice
must be annihilated, but God and sinners cannot both live, I mean, being
together before His immediate presence. God be praised!

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of
the Land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for
I am holy.” – Lev. 11:45

“But
as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” – 1
Pet. 1:15-16

Holiness is demanded in The Church, and why? Because
God is in “their” midst and He is offended at unholiness, therefore God
COMMANDED “them” to be holy. There is a reason for this, they are The Church.
God said, “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the Land of Egypt, to
be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev.
11:45). This is the same expressed intent revealed in Exodus 29:45-46,
heretofore repeated throughout the OT. Look at the meaningful connection
between God dwelling among them
and their need to be holy. Concerning creatures and foods, the Lord
commanded, “Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing
that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean
with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctifyyourselves,
and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall
ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out
of the Land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:43-45, 1 Peter 1:15-16). This verse,
serving as a small example, conveys to us the central issue around which
all the Law was instituted – God’sImmediate Presence – His very
presence was the reason for the Law, His presence necessitated the demand for the
people to strictly observe the Law or the purpose of personal holiness and a continual
cleansing Church-wide. “I am holy”,
God said, as a means of survival therefore, God commanded, “be ye holy”. All
other Laws, besides the former verses which addressed unclean animals, though
they are not so pointed to exactly articulate that God’s presence is the central
issue, they are all veins flowing from one heart.